1. Technical Field
The present invention is an extended ramp device for assisting pets and other small animals to escape from a swimming pool, lake, or other body of water, more particularly a compact, assembleable water escape ramp device with an extended ramp that may be collapsible and that includes either attached, foldable wing members or separate, snap-on wing members.
2. Background Information
Swimming pool owners and workers often find, to their sad regret, that a pet or wild animal has drowned after jumping or falling into an unattended outdoor or indoor swimming pool. Family or stray pets, such as dogs and cats, and wild animals, including rats, opossums, squirrels, and raccoons, and a wide variety of large and small insects, are too often found drowned in the family, club or municipal pool, because the animals were unable to locate or climb the pool steps or ladder, or to climb the smooth, vertical sides of the swimming pool. In addition to the physical and/or emotional pain suffered by the pet, its owner, and any bystanders, there is the unpleasant task of removing the remains of the domestic or wild animal from the pool. Since the animal's body may have contaminated the pool, the pool must be decontaminated, which often means incurring the expense of costly chemicals and/or draining and refilling the pool.
The present invention is an extended ramp device that can help animals trapped in a swimming pool or the like to escape when no human is present to extricate them. U.S. Pat. No. 6,643,879, Thomas M. Davis, issued Nov. 11, 2003 also describes an animal water escape ramp device. With the extended ramp device of the invention, the owner of the pool or the like need not incur the expense of reconstructing or redesigning the swimming pool, and there is no damage to the swimming pool or other body of water. The present invention is a buoyant extended ramp device for removable attachment to the deck or wall of a swimming pool or other body of water. The extended ramp device is inexpensive and easy to install, use, and remove. The extended ramp device of the present invention provides a long surface for the animal to mount, permitting even heavy small animals to utilize the ramp device.